Cerulean Frost
by Kanna-Ophelia
Summary: Misty has grown up these last few years. But when it seems like she has the chance to make her dreams come true, is she ready? Idolshipping. In indefinite hiatus.
1. Acid Armor

++==Cerulean Frost==++  
  
//This is a serious attempt at idolshipping, my first true future fic unless you count perfect Happiness. The events are set four years after the Orange Islands series – Misty is eighteen, and Prima has left the Elite Four. Chapter titles are attacks used by water or ice pokémon, considering the two ladies this story focuses on. Feedback is gratefully received.  
  
This is, obviously, femmeslash – yuri, shoujou-ai, whatever you prefer to call it. So if the idea of two women in love bothers you, go read one the thousands of Ash/Misty stories out there, instead.  
  
Standard disclaimer: This story uses concepts and characters from the Pokémon World, in the spirit of a fanwork and not to claim ownership or make profit /  
  
For my true and fated love.//  
  
  
  
==Chapter One: Acid Armor==  
  
There were four Gym Leaders in Cerulean City, these days. But only one of them, the youngest reflected grimly, ever bothered to answer when a trainer rang the doorbell.  
  
Misty surfaced, shaking water from her red hair, and pushed herself out of the pool. She really wasn't in the mood for a battle right now. Under the water was the only place she could shut herself out from all the pain and confusion and noise of the outer world. It was her home… Nothing but blue shadows and her beloved pokémon, darting in and out of view. It was the one place she really felt free of the depression which had clung to her shoulders for three years now.  
  
Still, she knew better than to ask one of her sisters to face the challenger. After all, it was Misty's job to do all the boring jobs, while her older sisters posed for admirers… She snapped firmly down on her encroaching bitterness. Blaimg her sisters for being who they were wouldn't help the situation at all.  
  
Misty may have made a complete mess of the rest of her life, but there was no reason to fail as a gym leader as well.  
  
She wrapped a towel around her shoulders, not bothering to dress. What did she care, if some little kid saw her in her bathers? She could feel her brows drawing together as she called her pokémon back.  
  
"I swear, she muttered to herself, "if this little brat gives me trouble, I'll pound them into the water." She stomped into the main gym, Togetic chirruping soothingly into her ears, ready to blast some unfortunate beginning trainer into oblivion.  
  
The last thing she expected to see was an adult… very adult… woman leaning over the counter, turning in her hand one of the little glass figurines of water pokémon that resided there. At first all Misty thought was that the lady was a little on the mature side for a pokémon journey. Some part of her mind that she could never quite repress slid her gaze assessing down the intruder, appreciating the full curves and the way her purple hair fell forward in a gentle curve to shield her face from view. The rest of her mind scolded her for it.  
  
Then the woman unhurriedly lifted her head to see who had entered, and light reflected from the main pool glinted off her glasses.  
  
Rich curves… purple hair… glasses…  
  
It was her.  
  
Misty felt hot blood rush to her cheeks, staring into the face of the woman she had obsessed over for years. In the space of a moment, she was no longer the confident, impatient gym leader, but a teenaged girl, unexpectedly in the presence of her idol.  
  
"Prima!" she gasped.  
  
The woman smiled gently and distantly. "Which of the beautiful Cerulean Sisters am I addressing?" she asked, her usual ultra-relaxed drawl feeling as sweet and warm to Misty as hot molasses.  
  
Misty suddenly felt very exposed in her aqua swimsuit, ridiculously aware of her bare legs and arms and the small breasts pressing against thin material. She resisted the preposterous urge to cover herself with her hands. . "Um – M-Misty." She pushed back damp, stringy hair with one hand, wishing she had taken the time to brush or style it. Violet would never be caught at a disadvantage like this.  
  
"We met before," she added eagerly, and then ground her thumbnail into her palm, feeling it press painfully against the skin. Stupid, stupid… Meeting some random children wasn't likely to be such an event to a member of the Elite Four as meeting her idol had been to her. Don't be such a moronic fangirl, she berated herself. You sound like an idiot.  
  
"The streams of memory flow into the sea and disperse among the foam," Prima murmured. It sounded more or less like an apology.  
  
"It's okay," Misty said quickly. She distracted herself from her illogical plummeting disappointment by examining Prima – well, she could hardly help looking at Prima. The difficulty was in not eating her up like a ravenous street urchin with her first meal for days – and noting how much she had changed in the intervening years. Very little, she decided. Prima's already voluptuous figure had softened still further since she had been knocked out of the Elite Four. Her tiny waist was not so tiny anymore. But her hair was even longer and silkier, and she wasn't any less beautiful than she had been when they had last met… More beautiful, in fact.  
  
Misty herself had changed a lot more in the last few years than Prima. She turned away, as much to disguise her mangled emotions as for any other reason, and stole a glance at her own reflection in the training pool. She saw a tall girl with well-muscled arms and legs, a long lean body with no more bust than she had at twelve, reddish hair cut straight across at the shoulders. Her bathing suit mercilessly revealed her lack of feminine curves, and the way her hip bones jutted above her thighs.  
  
She couldn't make out her face in the water, but she knew it was still red enough to light the way through a fog for any flying sleigh. This was a joke. She was too old for crushes… And she had never really been girlie enough to excuse them.  
  
"How can I help you, ma'am?" she belatedly, remembering her job as representative fo the Cerulean Gym.  
  
She startled as a soft hand was laid on her arm, and turned to look into lobelia-blue eyes, glittering at her behind the spectacles. "Tiny wavelets do not always know of the pounding depths. But they are the same ocean." Prima's dreamy words were in sharp contrast to her piercing gaze.  
  
Misty, trying to live up to that gaze, frowned thoughtfully. Maybe Prima meant… No, it was no good. She didn't have a clue what she was getting at. "I – I'll remember that," she lied brightly.  
  
Prima's sweet mouth curved, as if she was sharing a delicious private joke. "I mean that I remember you. You were the little girl with the Tracey Sketchit and the future pokémon master."  
  
"Oh." Misty tried to decide if she was overjoyed at being remembered, or humiliated at being described as a little girl… and little girl only to be remembered because of her companions. "Yes, Ash Ketchum," she added, the name bringing memories flooding back. She didn't want to think of Ash… Of her ex best friend. Her pain and guilt were still too bright and poisonous, like Arbok's venom. Funny that was the simile her mind unconsciously produced. It had been three years since she had seen an Arbok… The poison pokémon belonged back with her bittersweet memories. "  
  
"Yes, that was me," she said at last. "I'm surprised you remembered." She stressed the 'you' a little, betraying that she felt Prima was, somehow, on a different sphere to other people… One that could not be expected to remember mere humans.  
  
Prima shrugged, the action doing amazing things to an already fascinating cleavage. "The child you were with was one to be remembered. If he learns to respect his pokémon, he will go far. In any case… Many paths intertwine, and cross again and again on knife's journeys. Perhaps it is fate." Prima paused, and abruptly seemed to remember the destination of her meandering stream of conversation. "I was visiting Professor Oak, and Mr. Sketchit sent me here to find you," she finished.  
  
"To find – me?" Misty sent a sudden prayer of gratitude to her old friend. Kind, sweet Tracey… She'd always liked him, well, once she had become used to the idea of an interloper replacing Brock. He had stood by her through… those very bad days… and now – now he had sent Prima to her. He was such a sweet boy, she reflected fondly.  
  
"How did Tracey think I could help you?" she asked curiously. "Not that I won't do anything I can…"  
  
"I need an assistant," Prima explained. "A secretary really… but one who understands water and ice pokémon. I mentioned my need while I was visiting Professor Oak, and his young assistant reminded me of you, and suggested that you might be willing to find a new path in life." She paused, delicately. "He intimated that your feet are perhaps on the wrong road."  
  
"I'd love to!" Misty gasped. She could feel the corners of her mouth stretching up so hard that it hurt. "Thank you.."  
  
Prima smiled. "Wonderful."  
  
"Yes… it is," Misty agreed breathlessly. For the first time in ages, she was bubbling with anticipation for the future. She was working for Prima… Prima, formerly of the Elite Four, world-famous expert on ice and water pokémon and motivational writer…  
  
When Misty was twelve, she had started filling scrapbooks with articles and pictures of Prima, the youngest and prettiest of the Elite Four. She had pored over this face for hours at a time, wondering if she would ever get a chance to see the woman for real and maybe, if she was really lucky, speak to her or get her autograph. Perhaps her admiration had held elements of sublimated lesbianism, at first. Prima, with her water/ice speciality, was a safe idol for a girl growing up in a water pokémon gym. And she was as comfortably distant as a pop star a more conventional girl might have obsessed over.  
  
When Misty had first met her for real, the more… direct… aspects of her crush had been difficult to conceal. Tracey had understood all too well, and been indulgently amused. Ash hadn't had a clue what the fuss was about… Well, that was Ash, for you. And Misty was not going to think about him.  
  
And now – Misty would be working closely with her idol. Hearing her thoughts, sharing her air…  
  
"Wonderful," she breathed to herself.  
  
She just hoped she could keep her crush under control.  
  
tbc 


	2. Bubble

"Daisy… Lily… Violet…" Misty stumbled over the introductions, feeling absurdly as if she was bringing a date home for her parents' approval. She would have preferred to avoid this altogether, but as Prima had taken up Misty's invitation stay and work in the Cerulean Gym's famous water fields for a while, there was no way to keep her new employer away from the other Gym Leaders. It didn't help that her older sisters were staring at Prima with frank interest, casting occasional sidelong glances at Misty to see if she was blushing.  
  
She was pretty sure, too, that her sisters had lined up like that because they wanted to intimidate her. It was the kind of thing the trio would think was funny, and they knew about her childhood crush. Sometimes, being the youngest was just… not fair.  
  
And then Prima gave one of her exceedingly slow smiles, like melting ice, her eyes warming to meet her mouth's expression, and there was a sudden relaxation in the room. Misty was almost sure Daisy blushed, and the other two girls returned to their usual selves.  
  
At last Lily did her hospitable duty, with her usual gushy charm. "Oooh, it's an honour to meet one of the legendary Elite Four!" she squealed. "Except that you're, like, not really an Elite Four member anymore, but…"  
  
Misty winced, but Violet was already talking over her sister. "And you've given Misty a job? That's just so cool!"  
  
Daisy, somewhat recovered, belatedly added her voice to the clamour. "She'll be terrific! She, like, works really really hard," the tone of her voice made it apparent that Daisy wasn't quite sure if this was really a desirable character trait, "and she just looooooooooves water pokémon." She winked roguishly, and her sisters twittered. Misty resisted the urge to go hide in a corner.  
  
Prima didn't seem taken aback by all the noise, or to register Daisy's heavy hinting. She slid an arm through Misty's, and remarked, "Passion is the dew on the grass of the world."  
  
"Ooh, really?" Daisy giggled. "I'm glad you're interested in Misty's… passion…"  
  
//I'm going to kill her,// Misty told herself. //I am really really going to kill her. I should use the mallet of doom… Except that I don't want Prima to think I'm a violent, immature kid.  
  
//I don't want her to think I'm a kid at all.//  
  
She smiled, gritted her teeth, and prepared to endure dinner. Only endure dinner, and then she would be alone in her room to absorb the miracle of the day. And then tomorrow… she would be working by Prima's side. She just had to hold on to that thought. It might help her avoid fratricide.  
  
After all… She had learned exactly where losing her temper got her. She had learned her lesson.  
  
"She's, like, really old, and a bit chunky, but she's a total babe! Go for it Misty!" Violet hissed in her sister's ear. Her "discreet" whisper could be heard a mile away, and Prima cast a coolly reflective look at Misty that made her ears burn.  
  
Misty ruffled Togetic's feathers to hide her confusion. Keeping her temper was going to be just a little more difficult than she had thought.  
  
* * *  
  
Dinner was… not as bad as Misty had expected, at least at first. Prima talked charming, incomprehensible nonsense… no, that wasn't it, she shared her meaningful wisdom. And the Waterflowers were fascinated. Wide-eyed, they absorbed every word, and remarked at intervals, "Wow! That's, like, so deep!"  
  
Misty felt a little left out at first, but she soon relaxed. It was nice, after all, to bask in Prima's beauty and the glowing aura of wellbeing she seemed to radiate. Amazing that her speciality was ice… Prima reminded Misty of sunshine, beautiful, warming and relaxing. Difficult to remember that both ice and sunshine could burn…  
  
She found herself slipping into a dreamlike state, lulled by the gentle voice and only jolted into awakeness every now and then by her sisters' piercing voices. It was almost not necessary to listen to Prima's words. It was enough to lose herself in the rhythms of her voice, to watch that perfect red mouth, the occasional glint of white beneath the unpainted reddish-pink lips, an unexpected glimpse of her tongue as she mouthed a consonant. Such an impossibly lovely mouth… generous, sweet, made for kissing.  
  
Part of Misty knew she was being foolish, but she was lulled by happiness and wine into following the enticing thought instead of repressing it. Prima's lips were so full, they would feel like velvet against her mouth… They would part softly, to let Misty's tongue play on the hard teeth, slide between and enter her mouth…  
  
To kiss another woman again. It had been so long, after all… Her mind slid back to the first time, without her control, the wine encouraging her thoughts to move of their own accord, whether she wished it or not. Back…  
  
After all, your first real kiss was not something you could forget.  
  
++ Misty could feel herself shivering, but she was warm, very warm, with a heat that flamed from her mouth and her groin and through every inch of her body. Her tongue was in another girl's mouth… The world wasn't supposed to work that way, but it was the most exquisite sensation she had ever felt, barely acknowledged longings pounding through her bloodstream… When she felt a tongue press against hers, and then sudden hard suction, she thought she would pass out.  
  
Then the mouth left hers, and she let her lashes creep open, to meet amused blue eyes, and a tongue that ran teasingly over the lips she had just kissed.  
  
In that moment, Misty didn't care who or what she might have betrayed. She just wanted to kiss that mouth again.  
  
Maybe, she thought, as her second real kiss began, this was how love felt.++  
  
"Misty, are you okay?"  
  
Misty realised that Prima's face had blurred beyond her recognition. She turned to face Lily's concern. Wiping the back of her hand against her eyes, she tried to smile.  
  
"I just got something in my eyes," she said, falling back on the classic lie. No one could be expected to believe it, but at least it saved face. Well, a little, anyway.  
  
Togetic, perched on the back of her chair as usual, leaned forward and pressed its head against her cheek sympathetically. The happiness pokémon's tenderness was a clear betrayal of her distress, but she just hoped no one would catch her up on her untruth.  
  
Prima reached across the table, and laid her hand on Misty's smaller hand. She startled at the contact, and then was desperately glad when Prima did not remove her touch. She stared up into Prima's eyes – blue, but not like those she remembered so bitterly – and silently begged her not to ask why she was suddenly so upset.  
  
"Your Togetic is devoted to you," she said, softly. "You are blessed to have such a rare and loving pokémon."  
  
Mist managed to gleam gratefully at her through her tears, adding another measure of adoration to Prima's account. "I've had it ever since it was a baby Togepi," she said proudly.  
  
Prima squeezed her hand. "The secret of truly gifted training is the bond of love between trainer and pokémon. To make a pokémon evolve through happiness is something of which to be proud. I have chosen my assistant well."  
  
  
  
"You should meet her Psyduck!" Daisy slyly put in. "Misty's bond with it is truly special."  
  
Prima gave the red-haired girl a sweet look. "I should be glad to meet your Psyduck. Perhaps I shall learn something from this, too."  
  
Misty smiled weakly, and began to plan new ways to murder her sisters. There was an uncomfortable silence, with only Prima seeming oblivious to any tension.  
  
Finally, Violet tossed her sparkling hair and changed the subject. "Um, Prima, do you mind if I ask a kind of personal question?" Her eyes ran down from Prima's face, to settle just below her shoulders, widening. "Are those things *real*? They're humungous!"  
  
Misty resisted the urge to bang her head against the table. With difficulty. It took even more self-control not to bang Violet's head against the table.  
  
"What is true is genuine, but is what is genuine also true?" Prima asked, serenely. Violet blinked at her.  
  
"Yes," Prima supplemented. "They are mine… but not as significant as some people seem to think." The eyes of all three sisters swivelled towards Misty, who choked on her wine. Fortunately, the subject was dropped as the four women tried to help restore her breathing.  
  
"So," Lily asked brightly as order was restored, "why don't you wear contact lenses?"  
  
* * * *  
  
Much later that night, Misty curled up in bed. She didn't want to think about most of dinner… Only the way Prima had smiled at her, sometimes, with what looked like understanding, and the praise of Togetic.  
  
Not, definitely not, about her sisters.  
  
She had called Tracey after dinner, deciding she at least owed him the acknowledgement that his gift was appreciated. It had taken ages to get hold of him – which could have menat either that he was hard at work, or another candlelit dinner with Professor Oak. Finally, she had managed to give him the tribute of thanks.  
  
He had smiled cheerfully at her. Tracey was always cheerful nowadays. "You deserve the job. And I can tell you're happy about it. You're glowing."  
  
"Really?"  
  
"Yes… It's good to see, Mist. I've been worried about you lately – we all have."  
  
"I'm okay." She leaned against the screen, and Togetic chirruped confirmation. "It's just that… My sisters are kind of hard to talk to, sometimes."  
  
He twinkled at her. "You think Prima will be easier?"  
  
She giggled. "Maybe not… But at least she isn't a ditz. She's… wonderful."  
  
Tracey grinned at her. "Try and keep it together, okay, Misty?"  
  
Later, she wondered what he had meant. Oh, who was she kidding… It was all too obvious. And she knew… she would be sensible, work hard, and hope to become Prima's friend. That was all she could reasonably hope for.  
  
Only… When she had faced Daisy head-on about her teasng, Daisy had merely widened luminous eyes and said, "We're only trying to, like, help young love along. You'll never have a chance with her if she doesn't know you like her."  
  
"Daisy, she's my employer, not my date!"  
  
Daisy shrugged. "And you've only obsessed about her for centuries. And she likes you too – I can tell."  
  
"She – she d-does? No… Daisy, you're delusional."  
  
Daisy shrugged. "What harm can it do? And besides… What's the point of having a dyke sister with no girlfriend? We can't, like, show we accept you if there's nothing to accept."  
  
Misty suddenly hugged her. "I love you, Daisy."  
  
"I love you too, shrimp." She affectionately tugged a red lock. "I say, go for your dreams!"  
  
"Yeah, sure," Misty sighed, not meaning to. It would be enough to just be near her idol, without complicating things.  
  
But… Now, in her quiet bedroom, she couldn't help wondering if Daisy was, at all, anywhere close to the truth.  
  
tbc 


	3. Powder Snow

==== Chapter Three: Powder Snow ====  
  
The feathery whiteness curling in the air looked like smoke; but it was very different in quality. Prima shivered, and pulled her scarf more tightly around her neck.  
  
She tried to focus on her notes, but her eyes kept wandering to her new assistant, who was feeding Prima's lapras, cooing affectionately at it. Her pampered togetic, hampered by the flying pokémon dislike of ice, seemed happy enough wrapped in blankets and a hot water bottle in a basket by her feet. The girl firmly refused to be separated from the creature for more than a few minutes. It justified her attention, too - Prima had never seen such a joyful, if spoiled, pokémon.  
  
Misty seemed far less vulnerable than her employer to the frigid temperature of the Ice Room. Because of the sympathy between water and ice pokémon, the Cerulean Gym kept one inner pool around freezing point, for the comfort of dual water/ice types. Glittering snow coated every solid surface and drifted through the air, and ice bobbed in the pool itself. Misty didn't go so far as to strip off and swim among the ice-crystals, but the temperature only seemed to affect her by adding an extra glow to her vivid young face.  
  
Lapras bent her long neck and affectionately rubbed her cheek against Misty's for a moment. Misty reached up a small hand to stroke the giant pokémon, then startled. In the next moment she was by Prima's side, grasping both her hands in unselfconscious excitement rather than intimacy.  
  
"Lapras spoke to me!" Her eyes were dancing blue-green flames, as if they had been fueled by driftwood.  
  
Prima smiled, abandoning all pretence at studying. The pretty girl holding her hands through woolly mittens was far more fascinating. Besides, wasn't it her job to impart knowledge? "Water and ice pokémon have an affinity with psychic powers. Sometimes their minds can communicate with a receptive human. What did she say?"  
  
Misty hesitated. "She said. not words, precisely. images and feelings. She was happy. grateful. A voice like a song." Her own voice softened with the wonder of the memory.  
  
Prima squeezed her hands. "The heart communicates more truly than the mind. Lapras knows you love her." She had never seen a face so. alive. as Misty's right at this moment. She could not drag her eyes away.  
  
"Lapras are so beautiful! I knew one that spoke in words once. Not to me, to my friend." Her face clouded, and Prima did not press the subject. Part of her very much wanted to know why this bright-spirited girl was so depressed sometimes, but her desire to bring the sparkle back to those aqua eyes was more pressing.  
  
"That is very unusual. It must have been very highly trained, and it must have had a strong empathic link with its trainer. If hearts are one, miracles can happen, in pokémon training as well as in." She caught herself up. What on earth was she doing, flirting like this with a woman who was little more than a child? She unobtrusively released her grip on Misty's hands.  
  
Misty still looked a little sad, although that might have been because they were no longer holding hands. But that was a foolish thought. "I've never known anyone who loved pokémon as much as he did. But this wasn't his lapras. He caught one later - but he couldn't talk to it. It was only a baby, really." She smiled fondly at the memory. "It carried us around the Orange Islands. That's how I first met you."  
  
"Lapras have always brought me good luck," Prima said, for no other reason than a selfish desire to see the shadow lift from Misty's face. It worked. the younger woman gave her a luminous look, then flushed and turned back to Prima's lapras.  
  
"You're a beautiful girl, yes you are," she crooned to the blue pokémon, obviously trying to cover her pleased confusion.  
  
Prima tried very hard to feel guilty for yielding to the temptation to say something nice to her most faithful fan. It was abundantly obvious that Misty had a painful crush on her. A slight word of praise made her face light up like a rosy sunrise, and she had obviously been cursed with the redhead's fate of frequent and easy blushing. And then, there was the way her sisters plagued her, and then hinted broadly to Prima that they would make a cute couple.  
  
It was hardly the first crush, from someone of either sex, that Prima had found herself dealing with. When she had been one of the Elite Four, she had taken it for granted that she would be the recipient of a certain amount of idol-worshipping, although it had lessened since she had fallen out of the magic few. Prima knew that she should put a stop to this particular situation before it spiralled out of control. Misty was her employee and, after all, very young. eighteen or nineteen at most. The last thing she should do was encourage her infatuation.  
  
The only problem was that it was. nice. Very nice, to have such blatant adoration focussed on her. And nice to have the power to create such happiness in someone so very easily. And Prima shied away from the thought of hurting Misty. She was very fond of her already, after just over a week of working with her. She was such a sweet child, and so filled with fire. And then there was the problem of her fits of depression and self-hatred.. They fit so strangely with Misty's outgoing personality that Prima was fascinated, and worried about damaging her fragile self-esteem further.  
  
Still... perhaps, she thought, she should not encourage her quite so much.  
  
Prima had forgotten that most people were uncomfortable with long, dreamy silences in the middle of conversations. Sometimes she suspected she spent so much time alone with her thoughts and her pokémon that she wasn't quite sure how normal people behaved anymore. There was a slight edge of embarrassment in Misty's voice as she said, "You are so lucky to have such a beautiful and powerful pokémon."  
  
Prima snuggled into her coats, and said, "You think physical beauty is important in a pokémon?"  
  
"Well of course! It's all very well to talk about inner beauty, but." Her voice trailed off into discomfiture. "I'm sorry. I sound like Team Rocket, don't I?" Prima stared at her in mystification, wondering why Misty would compare herself to a huge criminal organisation, but the girl was rushing on. "I don't mean to be shallow, and I know it's not fair or right. But it's the same for humans, isn't it?" Her tone was bitter. "Look at my sisters. I'm by far the better trainer, but it's not because of *me* that the Cerulean Gym is famous."  
  
Prima looked curiously at her, at the bright copper hair shining against the soft white snow of the platform, the vivacious little face. All she said, however, was, "Your sisters are indeed. unique."  
  
"You're telling me." Misty sighed, and came back to sit beside Prima. "I'm sorry. It doesn't matter. You know," she added softly, seemingly more to herself, "I used to tell myself I was as pretty as them. That I was naturally cute, and that was better than looking like an artificial slutty tramp like my sisters or Jesse. Who wants to look like a prostitute, right?" Prima didn't ask who Jesse was, not wanting to disrupt Misty's chain of thought or scare her out of opening up. "But in the end, I just had to face up to the fact that I'm a scrawny tomboy, and I always will be. I'm not pretty and it's just dumb to fool myself that I am."  
  
She made a sudden, impatient gesture, pushing red hair out of those wide innocent eyes. "You wouldn't understand. You're even more gorgeous than they are."  
  
//Don't do this,// Prima told herself. //Stop this right now, before you regret it./// But her gloved hand had come up of her own accord, and stroked the side of Misty's triangular face. "Sunlight on water is most beautiful of all, Misty."  
  
Misty's face flushed dark rose. "What do you mean?"  
  
Prima was not prone to blushing herself, but her lashes dropped, upset with herself at her mistake. She was supposed to be discouraging the girl, not paying her compliments. And the brutal fact was that Misty was intelligent enough to realise she really couldn't compete with sisters on a purely physical level. . But she had looked so pathetic, and so adorable. There had to be a better way to deal with the problem than saying things that could be. misunderstood. "It doesn't matter. Look. This is my favourite pokémon."  
  
She pulled pokéball from her belt, and tossed it into the air. With a silent explosion of light, Jynx materialised on the ice, and expressed her pleasure at the low temperature in her weird, deep voice.  
  
"There - pretty, isn't she?"  
  
Misty gawked at the ice/psychic pokémon, with her vaguely humanoid shape, the flat inhuman features, the yellow not-quite-hair and the disturbingly coconut-like breasts. She obviously couldn't quite find the appropriate words. "Well, I guess... she's powerful and rare, and that's more important than being attractive," she finally said, doubtfully. It was only too evident she was trying to find an answer that would win Prima's approval, reciting a moral without really believing in it.  
  
Prima laughed, calling the pokémon over to her with a touch of her mind. "It's alright, Misty. Jynx has been with me a very long time. We connect. And your sisters might be superficially attractive, but I don't connect with *them* at all." She watched the slow dawning of colour on Misty's face, and realised she might just have made things much worse.  
  
She was aware she probably should feel a lot more guilt than she actually did. But. at least she hadn't right out told Misty she was more attractive than her sisters. Yes, that made her conscience much more at ease. She wasn't behaving inappropriately at all.  
  
She sighed, her breath as white as the powdery mists of snow, and tried to turn back to her notes. After a few minutes, she gave up, and began to gather together her papers. "Misty?"  
  
Her assistant was conscientiously, if somewhat nervously, trying to befriend Jynx, but she looked up immediately she heard her idol's voice. Prima had a distinct pang at the sight of her eager face. "Yes, Prima?"  
  
"If it's any comfort, your sisters keep giving me tips about low-fat food and exercise."  
  
"I - I - I'll kill them!" Misty shrieked, seeming to grow several inches in her fury.  
  
Prima laughed, and patted her shoulder on the way out of the Ice Room. She needed to find some warmth. and not in her assistant's eyes.  
  
~tbc~ 


	4. Icy Wind

_~Chapter Four: Icy Wind~ _

Misty sat at the computer, typing enthusiastically if not particularly quickly or accurately, heartily glad of the spellchecker.  Biting her lip in concentration, she determined to begin some serious work with the typing tutor soon.  She did not want to let her employer down in any way, no matter how slight. If Prima wanted her to type up notes from her recordings, then Misty was determined to break all records for typing speed.

Only… It would take her a while, she realised, sighing with frustration over how little she had achieved.  She had spent the last few years either traversing the wilderness or battling new trainers for the Cascade Badge, and apart from a casual email to Tracey or Marina every now and then, reasons for sustained typing did not really arise.  

The fact that children on the Kanto Plains generally finished school at ten years old probably did not help, either.

It also did not help that her job involved listening to Prima's recordings. It made it too all too easy to float, dreaming, on the cadences of her voice… At this rate, it was going to take her hours.

Misty was beginning to give up on the idea of ever overcoming her infatuation for her employer.  It was Prima's fault, she thought as she banged the keys, for being so damn sweet and fascinating.

On a sudden impulse, Misty minimised her window, and opened up her email programme.  Ash's address was there in the "to" field before she was even consciously aware of typing his name.

She stared at it a long moment, trying to remember if she had ever emailed Ash before.  On consideration, she did not think so.  At first there had never been a need. She had been with him all the time – email, like video phone calls, was for his mother to check that the pokémon master was having his underwear regularly laundered. And afterwards… She had not felt he would want to hear from her, had been afraid to open communication herself.

Afraid… She felt a sudden wash of disgust with herself. For all her faults, Misty had never been a coward.  She had faced Mewtwo, Entei and Team Rocket, even if none had turned out to be much of a real threat. She could write an email to her best friend. Ex-best friend.

She began to type, slowly, awkwardly, not pausing to correct errors for fear that her courage would fail again.

_"Deat Ash and Brock.  I guess you weren't expecyting to hgear from me agina. I just wanted to let yu know"_

She scrunched her eyes closed a moment. What exactly did she want him to know? That she was alive, that she was… sorry. That even though she did not think she deserved to be forgiven for what she had done, she still wanted to be.  That she wished they could be friends again. That she missed them… and Pikachu. Especially the little yellow pokémon, to be honest. She knew Togetic missed it, too.

It had been so much easier when she was guilt free and comfortable with her inner bitch, and all she had to do, if she had a misunderstanding with Ash, was scream at him that he was a moron and give him a good hearty whack over the head. This apologising business did not come easily to Misty.  It was far easier to lose her temper than to say sorry.

The world had been far simpler when she had always been sure she was in the right, and had been willing to back it up with the mallet of doom, if necessary.

_…"that I'm ok/  I'm in Cerulean, where I've been lkiving with my sisters.  Tracey probely gas told you. Its been weird being a gyl leader again."_

She always half-expected the next challenger to be an obnoxious boy in a Pokémon League cap, with a cocky attitude and a surprisingly powerful Pikachu.  But of course, Ash already had his Cascade Badge, and was far too old and famous to be chasing such low-level goals right now.

_"I've got a new job now. Do you remember Prima, who used top be in the Elite Four and specialied in water and ice pokemon?" _

She paused. Any other heterosexual male would have no problems at all remembering Prima. Ash… She nodded, and helpfully added, 

_"She had a cloyster and a jynx."_

 There, that should do it.

_"Well, IUm working for her now."_

There had been surprisingly little actual work, or at least what Misty thought of as work, since she had come under Prima's employ.  Very occasionally, she would be asked to do what she thought of as proper assistant duties, looking up references in old tomes, calling Oak, Ivy or Elm for advice, doing a little typing.  Those occasions, however, rarely arose. She helped with Prima's pokémon as much as possible, and played with them frequently.  Togetic, she sometimes thought, was of more help than Misty herself. The happiness pokémon shed a warm radiance over the other pokémon, so that they emerged from the games refreshed and happy.

Misty burned to prove herself to Prima.  The chance never seemed to arise.  And meanwhile, day slipped into day like honey gathering into a slow stream from a spoon.

When she had asked Prima about her apparent lack of value, the older woman had given her one of her faraway smiles, and said that, as a water pokémon expert, Misty should know that spring water was at its most pure when gathered in a basin of untouched snow.  The girl had nodded wisely, and that night agonised over what Prima could have meant.  

In the end, she decided it meant that Prima's strange combination of pokémon research and motivational writing was facilitated by having someone completely clueless to absorb her wisdom. She was not quite sure how she felt about that.  But the last thing she intended to do was talk herself out of her miracle job.

_"Ui suppose you can guess what that means to me. It means pretty much what working with Profssor Oak means to Ytracey."_

Her typing faltered again. Maybe that was not the best thing to say, considering how Oak and Tracey had worked out.  Soppy May/December couple of the year.  Actually, more like May/April next year…

She was probably safe, though. That kind of thing always went over Ash's head, and Brock saw the world in purely heterosexual terms. So it didn't really matter that Misty was not likely to end up practically married to her employer.  It did not mean she was making false implications at all.

Togetic chirruped concern in her ear, and she stroked its head reassuringly. 

_"I can learn a lot abouyt water pokemon from her. It feels good to be finally chasing my own dreams."_

Instead of yours. She wondered if he would read that between the lines. But she had never minded, really, being swept up in Ash's quest to become a Pokémon Master – his dreams had seemed so real, so concrete, and it had been only natural to put her own dreams of becoming a water pokémon expert aside to focus on Ash's badges and tournaments. If it had left her with nothing, that was her own fault.

_"If you wouyld like to write back to me it would really mean a lot. I want to know hoe you and Brock are. Even if you don't want to be fiends anymore."_

She sat still for a long time, staring at the mistyped words on the screen. Finally, she typed, 

_"I just wanted you to know that Im happy._

_              XXX Misty."_

And she _was _happy.  Despite her inability to prove herself, Misty was happy.  So happy that it almost hurt with a clean bright pain.  So happy that even her nights seemed touched by sunlight.  So happy that her sisters could barely touch her blissful mood with their superficiality and teasing.  So happy that she had almost let go of old regrets and guilt, ceased to think about Ash and Brock and… her.  

There was really no room for anyone or anything in her thoughts but Prima.  Prima's warm dreamy voice, the lush femininity of her physical presence, the sparkling intelligence in those ice-blue eyes belying her apparent vagueness, and… most of all… the way she smiled at Misty. Smiled with eyes before lips, as if Misty's conversation genuinely gave her pleasure, as if Misty was essential to her rather than paid for being almost useless,  as if Misty's company was something to be desired.

Misty, the eternal tag-along, was not used to having her presence openly welcomed, let alone by one of her idols… Well, her only true idol.

It wasn't, she told herself, with a stab of grieving loyalty, that Ash, Brock and Tracey had not actually wanted her along. But… they never would have taken the time to let her know.  Prima let her know with every look and intonation, and  apparently with complete unconsciousness of what she was doing, or how it made Misty sparkle like a firework every time she realised she was wanted.

Wanted as a friend and assistant, that was. Possibly as a younger sister, or even daughter.

In her waking moments, Misty never let herself toy with the idea that her voluptuous employer might one day want her for far more. There were too many reasons why encouraging her infatuation was a bad idea.  She was not going to risk this job, this chance to be by Prima's side, for any reason. And besides…

She had learned the hard way that she herself was not exactly the zenith of feminine allure.

She sighed, and deleted the email unsent.  What was the purpose in just upsetting her former friends?  Instead, she pressed "play" on the little recording machine again. Prima's voice rolled in her ears.  "Desire is the turbine which powers pokémon growth. The desire of a trainer for glory, the desire of a pokémon to prove itself, the desire of both to merge and reach their full potential…"

Misty was not responsible for her own dreams.  They came with what would have been tedious consistency, if each one had not left her heart full and aching, and her body… She flushed as she typed, trying not to remember.  As if she ever had a chance…

Last night had been most vivid of all.

_She was naked, standing alone in the centre of a room.  There was ice and snow, or the suggestion of ice and snow, even if she could not see them directly.  Her nipples hardened under the frigid air, or perhaps for another reason again, as she was not really cold at all, despite the ice.  _

_The hands came from behind… Trailing fingertips down the curve of her face, tickling the nape of her neck where the baby hairs curled softly, rounding her shoulders.  They lingered on hr upper arms for a moment, then inevitably curved around, brushing down over Misty's small breasts, leaving her breathless.  Then she was turned, and stared at the ground, too nervous to seek her lover's face. And the hands swept up from her waist again, cupped her breasts and played with the hard nipples, feathering lightly against them._

_For a moment Misty wanted to apologise for her meagre endowments, felt shamed and somehow guilty for the small breasts that had been mocked often enough in her life, for having so little to offer when her beloved's body was so rich with curves. But then she raised her eyes again to her lover's, smouldering behind the twin circles of glass, and read love and lust there… and realised, suddenly, how perfectly her small breasts fit into the hands that were worshipping them. She smiled despite herself, and the smile was echoed on the other woman's lips._

_She wanted to kiss those lips, oh, so much it hurt… But she simply could not. She was too shy, too nervous.  But those caressing hands slipped lower and lower, until tension and fear pooled and tingled together so closely in her core that she could not tell which was which, and she felt the small, hard intrusion of a finger press between her lower lips and find the one place where it could push deeper…_

And she awoke, bathed in sweat and aching, and wondering why, if she had to dream erotically of her idol, her dreams gave her such miserly pleasures. No kisses, no chance to embrace or be embraced and feel Prima's body soft and warm against hers, no chance to touch her, not to feel her mouth on herself, or to  reach climax… not even the feeling of her finger actually breaching her body.  No real intimacy, and no fulfilment.  No soft words. Only a few light caresses and the promise of something more.

Except… except for that moment when she had looked into her eyes in the dream world, and seen herself beautiful and beloved, and they had both smiled.

That was a moment worth dreaming for, after all.

She felt rather than heard a step behind her, and Misty realised that, good intentions or not, she had stopped typing and was merely staring into space, Prima's recorded voice lulling her. Her fingers began to flurry on the keyboard, with more haste than good aim.

Gentle fingers slid the headphones off her ears, and something within her convulsed at the touch.  It was a sure a sign as any that the woman behind her was not one of her sisters.  Or if it was, Misty had really embarrassing unconfronted issues.

"You're working so hard." It was difficult to tell whether Prima approved, but her voice was whisper-wind soft, and her eyes were smiling. Or perhaps it was just a flash of light reflecting off the planes of her glasses.

"I wanted to get this finished for you." Misty caught the sycophantic _pleaseapprovepleaselikeme_ note in her own voice, and winced a little at herself. Show some spirit, girl, she silently implored herself. You're a gym leader.

"It will keep." Prima hoisted half a curvaceous bottom onto a free corner of the computer desk, and tilted Misty's face up with one finger. For one crazy head-swimming moment, Misty thought she was planning to kiss her. Instead, the older woman looked searchingly into the girl's face.

"Misty, haven't I seen all your pokémon but one? Don't you have a pysduck?"

Oh crap oh crap, what have my sisters been saying to her? Her giggle came out high-pitched and unnatural.  "Oh, yes, but I don't use it for battling. It's more a… pet."

"Even the weakest stem can support a rare flower."  Prima stood, probably because her perch was uncertain. Misty could have remained seated on the corner of the desk indefinitely, but then, she was much thinner than her employer.  Still, it would have been rather nice if Prima had toppled forward into her arms…

She stifled the thought.

If Prima wanted to see Pysduck, she was probably in enough trouble already.


End file.
